1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and an electronic apparatus.
2. Related Art
In recent years, reflective liquid crystal display devices are being increasingly applied to projectors, for their ease of designing high contrast and a dustproof optical system. In a typical reflective liquid crystal display device, the pixel electrodes are made of a material for reflecting electrodes such as Al or Ag, and the counter electrodes are made of a material for transparent electrodes such as indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium zinc oxide (IZO), in order to achieve the reflective display function.
However, in such a reflective liquid crystal display device, due to an imbalance occurring between the work functions of the materials for the pixel and counter electrodes, the electric potential of the counter electrodes (LCCOM) tends to greatly shift either positively or negatively. In other words, a so-called “LCCOM shift” phenomenon occurs among the counter electrodes. When a liquid crystal display device operates in this state, some display defects, such as flickering and image-stickings, could possibly appear on a displayed image.
Some techniques have been developed to overcome the above disadvantage. For example, JP-A-2005-49817 has proposed a reflective liquid crystal display device in which a work function adjusting layer is formed on the pixel electrodes. In this device, the sum of the work functions of the materials for the pixel electrodes and the work function adjusting layer is substantially the same as the work function of the material for the counter electrodes. Thus, the work function adjusting layer counteracts the imbalance occurring between the work functions of the materials for the pixel and counter electrodes.
However, in the abovementioned display device, an additional process of forming the work function adjusting layer on the pixel electrodes is involved. This process increases the amount of fabrication work, and complicates the structure of the device.